>> March 21, 2015

Highlights of 3rd day (21 March) of the 2015 Philippine National Open-Invitational Athletics Championships was the men's 1500m where the Philippine's SEA Games medalist Mervin Guarte takes gold medal with a time of 3:54.58, over 3 seconds faster than the last SEA Games' winning time. In women's javelin, experienced thrower and a former SEA Games champion Rosie Villarito of the Philippine continued her fine form to win national championships without much challenge from younger athletes.

Tomorrow is the last day of this champs which is held at Santa Cruz, Laguna. Selected results as follows;

Laguna, Philippine_____ Day 2 (20 March) of the 2015 edition of Philippine National Open-Invitational Athletics Championships saw the host sprinters, Brandon and Katherine claiming the century dash's victories. US-based sprinter Brandon Thomas overthrew the challenge of Malaysia's Eddie Edward Jr to win the men's 100m in a time of 10.80 (-0.2), with the Malaysian SEA Games representative finished a metre behind with 10.89 clocking. The women's 100m gold was taken by a SEA Games long jumper, Katherine Khay Santos (11.99, +1.3) who just returned home from her USA training stint.

>> March 20, 2015

Philippine National Open-Invitational Track and Field Championships, Santa Cruz, Laguna, 19-22 March 2015.

Day 1 highlights.

MEN

Philippine's SEA Games champions Archand Bagsit and Edgardo Alejan had exciting 400m runs and it was pretty much a dead heat on the line. On photo-finish nevertheless, Bagsit was the first crossing the line, 47.26 over 47.28. Next two places were filled up by Filipinos Ryan Bigyan (47.43) and Johan Caido (47.62). Malaysian Fairol Nazim finished in 5th in 48.35.

Malaysia's Muhd Ajmal Aiman Mat Hassan bagged 110mh gold medal with a time of 14.23 (+1.8), a mere .02 slower than his personal best. Philippine's Patrick Unso was trailing very near in 2nd in 14.28 while his teammate Clinton Kingsley Bautista ran 14.66 in 3rd.

The podiums of 3000m Steeplechase dominated by Filipinos. Christopher Ulboc ran 9:09.73 to win gold medal. Olympian and multiple SEAG gold medalist Rene Herrera has posted 9:11.91 to rank 2nd for silver, while John Moreno in 3rd (9:49.21) for bronze.

US-based Caleb Stuart who represented the host team threw 16.52 to win shot put. The throw however some way off to his PB 17.88 from 2014. Malaysia's SEA Games silver medalist Adi Alifuddin Hussin took silver in 16.21. Another Filipino Eliezer Sunang was 3rd in 16.05.

Caleb Stuart added another gold medal from hammer throw after registering 64.81. Stuart has a hammer PB of 68.66 he set only last week in the USA. Despite breaking National Record of 63.71, Jackie Wong Siew Cheer of Malaysia has ended up in 2nd for silver.

The men's 100m final is scheduled on day 2 with all eyes leads to the US-based Filipino sprinter Brandon Thomas (PB 10.59) who ran 10.72 in heats to become the fastest finalist. Malaysia's Eddie Edward ran 2nd fastest 10.85 to easily secures a final slot.

WOMEN

Jinky Obana of the Philippines takes 400m gold medal in a slow time of 58.46.

>> March 15, 2015

Japan's Yusuke Suzuki has broken the World record of the men's 20km race walking during the 2015 Asian Race walk championships today (15 March 2015) at Nomi City, Japan. The 27-year-old three-time Asian champion clocked a time of 1:16:36 which is also the 'first ever legal sub-1:17 performance', and exactly one-minute faster than Asian record held by China's Wang Zhen. France's Yohan Diniz set the previous World record 1:17:02 at his hometown only last week, and has not even been ratified. Prior to this race, Suzuki had a fastest time over the distance of 1:18:13 that he recorded exactly a month ago in Kobe, Japan. South Korea's defending and two-time Asian champion was in second with a new national record of 1:19:13.

Jaikol bin Gubal (b. 25 June 1955)
passed away on 28 February 2015 after a long battle with diabetes. He
represented Malaysia at the 1973 Southeast Asia Peninsular Games in Singapore
where he finished 5th in the triple jump (14.34). He appeared again at the 1977
edition (now known as Southeast Asian Games) in Kuala Lumpur and registered a
distance of 14.08 to finish in 7th. He collected four triple jump medals from
the National Athletics Championships, including silver medals in 1973 (13.91)
and 1977 (14.28) editions, and bronze medals in 1974 (13.99) and 1978 (14.29)
editions. The former certified MAAU/IAAF coach and instructor reached his peak
in 1976 where he recorded his lifetime bests for both triple jump (14.69) and
long jump (6.98) events at Kota Kinabalu. He was with the prison department of
Malaysia, and served as the director of prison at Henry Gurney school in
keningau, Sabah.